First, Wolf, I submit that the articles to which you link, regardless what "type" of site on which the articles appear, are "Opinion Pieces", not objective, fact based reporting; they are commentary, not news. There is a vast difference between "Editorial Commentary" and "News" or "Evidence". That difference is agenda.
Second, I submit that among the sites to which you link are some which as editorial stance so heavily press agenda as to call into question their critical objectivity. The source is often very much part of the message. Speculation is not reporting. Hysteria and hyperbole are not analysis. Sensationalism is rarely good journalism. Sadly, IMHO, it enjoys large audience.
timber
Trying to loop journalistic essays in with fringe sites who advocate extreme interpretations of "facts" doesn't support the case. This is being split into a new topic:
Conspiracy Theory and Internet Sites
Hey, au, I thought that was MY bridge. LOL c.i.
This topic has been split from here:
http://www.able2know.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=3476
I have done my best to get the split right, but often complicated topics can be a little confusing after a split. Unfortunately, I am unable to reunite split topics.
Thanks.
I found a new conspiracy theory!
The real reasons for 9/11 and bin Laden's presence in Afghanistan.
Here is the conspiracy site:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/1984459.stm
You've got me confused here, Wolf; The Afghan Pipeline is old news, and the deal was signed late last year:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/2608713.stm
At present, funding is yet being researched. No corporate partners have been secured, and all that currently exists is a treaty among Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Turkmenistan allowing for the tranist of Turkmeni gas through Afghan Territory to Pakistani Port Facilities. A few pages of paper is a far piece from a pipeline. I don't see anything at all about Bin Laden in this deal, and I see no guarantee whatsoever the pipeline ever will exist. Afghanistan's political situation is not condusive to heavy investment, nor does it promise to become so in the immediate future.
timber
Considering who funded Bush's power grab over the White House, you need to be blind not to acknowledge the enormous power shift the US and its energy corporations have accomplished by taking control of Afghanistan. It's the heart of Central-Asia, for crying out loud. Emancipating Indian and Chinese markets are dying for gas and oil.
The problem is - and it's a real and primordial problem, underlying all others: we are burning the oxygen of our planet.
That, in case you might wonder, is the underlying reason for posting the why I do - a way you surely must qualify as dangerously anarchistic or at least anti-American, but wrongfully so.
Humankind is entering its final stage: will it be intelligent enough to stop burning fossil fuels, and survive, or will it continue to burn them, and follow the fate of the distinct dinosaurs. The planet is rapidly warming up, and this destabilizes biological and agricultural systems to a point where they are no longer sustainable. At that point we will not be able to reverse the trend, and we will die. This transcends all international, political, or military realities, and is painstakingly urgent.
This whole power grab over the world's polluting energy resources really is the decisive nail in humankind's coffin - including your so beloved United States of America (make no hubristic mistake about it). Out of love for creation and earthly life, I'm bound to stop it. I hope you will join me. When our ecological balance is restored, you can pick all the fights you want. I'll voluntarily surrender. But first things first. We are like two men fighting over the controls of a crashing plane.
I submit again wolf, that I believe you are "Crying Wolf". No oil companies have so much as announced intention to begin investment. There is no pipeline, there is no booty, there is only a treaty among three nations allowing for the development of a pipeline. Once again, I fail to see any substance or urgency to something wich alarms you greatly. That's troubling in a way; I'm generally considered to be open minded. I find it hard to accept your propositions. Maybe its just me.
timber
Not only is nothing happening regarding the pipeline through Afghanistan, nothing is likely to happen. {akistan can not afford to finance the project alone. Pakistan and India aren't going to agree on anything in the near future. No American oil company is going to take the big capital risk for the small return that MIGHT be realized sometime in the distant future. China wouldn't be a beneficiary of the pipeline in any case that I can see.
Oil is an important element in maintaining the interlocking world economy, and will remain important for a long time. It is not however, the only element or even the most important consideration in international affairs. Argentine oil production probably has the biggest effect on the American market, yet there are no plans for an invasion there this year.
Yes it is just you. Global warming is a fact, and it's a fact that this process speeds up exponentially. Once it reaches a certain treshold, we loose control over it, and it slingshots to an uncertain but surely infertile future. That has nothing to do with 'crying wolf', but with realism. That's why I resist the Bush oil and weapons imperium. I couldn't care less about Iraq or Afghanistan, but each step in the direction of an oil-based world economy is a step towards global ecological devastation. The irrefutable science is there, and this science should not be superseeded by nationalistic or corporate motivations. It's so obvious that this path is decisive for our planet's future.
Wolf
You sound like chicken little the sky is falling. The picture is far less ominous than you paint it. The end of the world is not at hand. In addition mankind will probably blow it up long before global warming destroys it.
PS. Using the color scheme of terrorist alerts what color would you give to global warming at this time.
C.I
Nice picture. I have attempted to post pictures and all I get is a box with an X in it.
Au, there is currently no way to upload images directly to the site, so images must be linked from other sites. To do so, navigate to the picture you wish to post. Right-click on the picture, select "Properties". Toward the center of the Properties box, there will be a URL. Right-click and copy that URL (note: some URLS can be long ... drag your cursor down and to the right to be sure you highlight the entire URL, which may be longer than the box in which it appears). Now, navigate back to this website and to the thread on which you want the picture to appear. Use either "Post Reply" or "Preview" to get to the reply page. Along the top of the reply box are formatting options. Second from right is "IMG", click that, a new box will open. Paste the image URL into that box and confirm. I usually then use the "Preview" function to be sure the image is retrieveable. Images on password-protected sites, such as hotmail, cannot be hotlinked. News photos and unprotected images generally can be hotlinked.
I'm a terrible teacher, but I hope this helps. PM me if you have any more questions, or if I totally confused you.
timber
It's simple: if we start to reverse the trend now, and invest in clean cars, clean energy (the technologies are there!), the global warming due to carbon dioxide can be halted within 50 years, and the earth's temperature can return to nominal levels.
Burning more and more oil, which is precisely the goal of the present US administration, is surely going to push us in environmental and agricultural chaos - for which there is no, I repeat NO technical solution. Once you're there, you're screwed.
I'm not ranting for nothing, but because this is the simple reflection of facts, and because people so easily dismiss them, because they are so absorbed by day-to-day affairs, running around like headless chicken to survive as individuals. We can do better, we should be smarter and more determined than other animals on their way to extinction, and try to make the whole of humanity survive. I for one am spending the rest of my life in the attempt to stop the increasing low and high atmospheric pollution. Because that is simply our most urgent problem. As Dr. Helen Caldicott said: "If you love this planet, you will spend every second of every day trying to save it." It's happening people. The polar caps are melting, the number of floodings is growing. If we would see this happen on another planet, we would understand the enormous and rapid ecological shift. But here we close our eyes and pretend it'll be ok - God will provide or something. It's really up to you and me.
Look at Mars and Venus. They are totally devoid of life. Endless barren, dry or poisonous landscapes. The distance of the Earth to the Sun is exactly what it should be, and this brought us to where we are now - an incredibly rich biosphere. Are we going to waste that because of MONEY AND POWER???
wolf, The reality of this world is MONEY AND POWER. Or haven't you noticed yet? c.i.
I thought the reality was survival through money and power. Nobody just wants money or power. Humans try to survive and therefore need money and power - the more the merrier.
But the environmental problem says: wrong tactics. We must cooperate on a global level if we want this planet to be sustainable, not fight an individual, Darwinian race. There's just no two ways about it.
I'm not sure everybody knows this, but the graphics I posted on page 3 changes. c.i.
Funny and sad at the same time, c.i. Good cartoon.
To counter balance all this ridiculous fake terrorism alert, may I remind us that there is better evidence of 9/11 being an inside job. Mainly the collapse of the WTC7 building can hardly be ascribed to anything of a terrorist origin, or it should be called domestic state organized terrorism.
http://lightscion.com/Video/wtc-7_cbs.mp2
I've been a good boy and posted it with the "conspiracy" stuff. But it sure as hell is a horrible indication of what really happened, and what the Bush regime is pulling on us.
It's really shameful to be a conqueror and being worried of public opinion at the same time. If you need 9/11 for an imperium, you're indeed being a coward. Killing your own people makes you inhuman on top of that. Inhumane cowards, yeah, that's what the Bush regime is made up of.
I won't post any other stuff on 9/11. This should suffice for anyone with a brain.
